McGill University issued a terse response Friday to allegations some of its researchers have, over several decades, colluded with the asbestos industry to play down or cloud the fibrous mineral’s devastating health impacts.

A documentary on CBC Television’s The National on Thursday detailed how an institute set up by the Quebec Asbestos Mining Association paid professor John Corbett McDonald and other researchers at McGill at least $1 million between 1966 to 1972 for research on the health impacts of chrysotile asbestos.

In the documentary, professor David Egilman of Brown University claims some of those researchers altered the literature in a way that minimized or misrepresented the health effects of chrysotile asbestos.

Egilman, an expert on the health impacts of asbestos, claims the industry continued to fund asbestos research at McGill until recently.

The documentary suggests that the questionable research is still being used by the industry and the federal and Quebec governments to justify Canada’s continued involvement in asbestos production and export.

A letter sent to McGill on Thursday and signed by dozens of prominent health researchers and medical experts from across Canada and abroad demands that McGill cut its ties with the asbestos industry.

The signatories demand in particular that the university reconsider its decision to use asbestos in the construction of the McGill University Health Centre and call for the permanent resignation of a member of its board of governors who is an asbestos exporter.

In response to the documentary and the letter, McGill spokesperson Doug Sweet on Friday released the following statement, attributed to David Eidelman, McGill’s vice-principal of health affairs and dean of medicine:

“McGill University has the highest standards of research ethics, and the integrity and scientific value of research carried out at the University is of primary importance. When concerns are occasionally expressed about research ethics, we rely on a rigorous process of investigation.”

Asked whether McGill will probe McDonald’s research and funding, or other asbestos-related research at McGill, Sweet responded only that “McGill has policies and processes in place to guarantee that our research meets the highest ethical standards.”

Sweet noted that John Corbett McDonald is retired and “not an active member of the McGill community.”

He added “McGill is not conducting any research at present into asbestos.”

The documentary identified Dr. Bruce W. Case, now an associate professor in McGill’s department of pathology, as a key participant in several Mc-Gill asbestos studies.

On camera, Case denied he has received “even a penny” of funding from the industry.

In 2001, Case co-authored a study on asbestos fibres in the lungs of miners and millers that was partially funded by the J.M. Asbestos Corporation, according to the documentary.

Reached by The Gazette on Friday, Case declined to comment.

Dr. Fernand Turcotte, the lead signatory of the letter and a professor emeritus of public health and preventive medicine with Université Laval’s faculty of medicine, called McGill’s response “cowardly.”

“McGill has to make it universally known that it in no way supports the propaganda efforts of the industry and that under no circumstances should the pedlars of asbestos go around the world saying that they are supported in their statements by McGill University (research),” Turcotte said.

“The reality is that asbestos is a carcinogen and it is impossible to handle it in a way that renders it innocuous,” Turcotte said.

Stacy Cattran, of Canadian Voices of Asbestos Victims, said McGill’s reputation is at stake.

“Until McGill issues a statement rejecting any future ties to the asbestos industry, their money and people who seek to expand a deadly industry, I would certainly think any Grade 12 students considering a career in science and medicine would look elsewhere for a quality education where true medical research is valued,” said Cattran, whose father died of an asbestos-related illness.

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